Rocky Mountain Research Station
Missoula Forestry Sciences Laboratory
800 E. Beckwith Avenue
Missoula, MT 59801
Moscow Forestry Sciences Laboratory
1221 South Main Street
Moscow, ID 83843
Pacific Northwest Research Station
333 SW 1st Avenue
Portland, OR 97208-3890
North Central Research Station
1992 Folwell Avenue
St Paul, MN 55108
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Fuel Synthesis Quality Assurance
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The North Central, Pacific Northwest, and Rocky Mountain Research Stations are committed
to providing quality science products to both our international and national clients.
To do so we adhere to a Code of Scientific Ethics holding us to the highest standards in all of our activities.
Most importantly the Code sets the standard of how we conduct and report research that can be used to inform
land management decisions.
An integral part of the scientific process we use is critical reviews of our missions, scientific approaches,
and our findings.
The peer review process in the form of both blind and open reviews is used to ensure that the high standards
USDA Forest Service Research and Development (FS R&D) has set are met in all of the products we produce.
In addition to the peer review process, each of our manuscripts undergoes a policy review,
and Forest Service publications are approved by a publications control officer.
When completed, the products produced by the Fuel Synthesis Project
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a cooperative project among USDA Forest Service, Washington Office, Fire and Aviation Management,
the USDA Forest Service, Washington Office, Vegetation Management and Protection,
and the three Research Station
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will meet or exceed the standards set by FS R&D.
An important component of the Fuel Synthesis Project is provision of tools and information readily available
for doing fuels planning in the dry forests of the western United States.
To do so, prior to their completion many of the products, especially those that are Web or spreadsheet based,
have undergone and are undergoing review and evaluation by potential users of the products to ensure that they
meet the needs outlined by the Fire and Aviation Management Staff, fuel planners, and NEPA planners.
Many of these users, primarily within federal government agencies, have been invited to formal testing sessions,
and others have been invited to use the tools in various venues occurring throughout the western United States.
These evaluations have been invaluable to the Fuel Synthesis Team by providing immediate feed-back as to the
usefulness of the products and their relevance to completing the planning and execution of fuel treatments.
However, as with any information used to inform land management decisions,
the information produced by the Fuel Synthesis Project needs to stand scrutiny provided by the Data Quality Act
and science consistency processes.
When completed, the products produced by the Team will more than conform to these standards.
Therefore, users of our tools need to recognize that of many the tools are still in the developmental stage and
are not final, to ensure that the decisions they inform are consistent with the science used, and to disclose
the tools' status when they are used.
At the present time the Fuel Synthesis Team has several products completed with all of them peer, policy,
and control officer reviewed.
Several publications have undergone blind peer review and several of our computer-based products have
undergone panel review processes.
An important component of these reviews is that the comments were reconciled and the results of the
reconciliation were recorded and filed.
By the time they are finalized, all of our tools and products will meet or exceed the standards set by our Code of Ethics,
FS R&D, and by the scientific community at large.
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Applied Wildland Fire Research in Support of Project Level Hazardous Fuels Planning -- Contacts
